This
article first appeared as a thread on theWoodNet
woodworking forum. It was compiled and reproduced here for easier public consumption.
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Text and Images are the property of Bob Smalser.

In previous
articles, I described rehabbing older Bailey-pattern planes acquired from Ebay
to replace all the family's ancient wood planes.the ones I'm getting tired of
inlaying mouths in every decade or so as they wear. I'll rehab these oldies
one more time and pass them on to my oldest boy who's interested in luthier
work.he'll be the 5th generation of craftsman for some of these. I'll describe
resoling these woodies in another
article, but as my card scrapers are essential tools for this work and mine
all need a tune-up, I'll walk you through that process today.

I pull the
mahogany filing block out of the bin.any hardwood block the length of the file
with a dead square rabbet to serve as a shelf for the file will do. and while
holding the chalked file in place with my left hand I run the scraper down the
teeth until I've filed away all the old wire edge and have a nice fresh, square
surface to turn a new edge from. The chalk aids in preventing the single-cut
mill file from clogging and I'm careful to not slide the scraper backwards against
the file's teeth..a practice that dulls files exactly twice as fast as necessary.

A nice, fresh,
dead-square edge.

Then moving
both block and scraper to the Arkansas stones, I hone the edge dead smooth on
coarse and fine stones. The smoother and squarer the edge, the better and more
durable the eventual cutting edge.

Then I clamp
the scraper to a hard, flat surface and use a burnisher to turn a wire edge
inwards on both edges as shown in the sketch. The burnisher? The one I'm using
is a luthier design by Timberline Tools of Mendanales, New Mexico, but any hardened
and smooth steel will do..like the back of the old Buck Brothers gouge shown
or a valve stem or pushrod from your local junkyard. The burnisher should be
oiled for best results.

Then I simply
affix the scraper on edge and turn those wire edges outward to make two hook
edges as shown in the second sketch. The purpose-built burnisher does that automatically
and rapidly..when using the gouge, I use two hands and rub the edge on a diagonal
with the burnisher beginning horizontally and pushing the gouge twenty or so
degrees downward during each stroke.

The result?
The scraper, held in both hands and sprung a bit toward the body as it is pulled
toward you, cuts this hard maple sole like a plane..only with more control and
precision. Learn to use scrapers, and you'll cut your abrasive paper outlays
to a pittance and even that varnish finish coat that egg-shelled on you won't
be a burden. That's right.properly tuned they can cleanly remove as little as
one layer of varnish.

I'm not into
unnecessary tools, but this luthier's burnisher halves the time and effort of
tuning the scrapers. You can either buy or make one. How do you harden the 5/16ths
drill rod? After it's cut to length and the edges eased, simply grab it with
soft-jawed pliers, heat it to cherry red with a propane or MAPP torch, and toss
it in a can of linseed or motor oil.